Adopt Army Corps Reforms

September 28, 2006

During the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina last year, the failure of levees and waterways designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect New Orleans from such a disaster was a national outrage. Yet a year later, as Congress negotiates legislation authorizing billions of dollars in new water projects, it's still an open question whether members have learned from the experience of Katrina.

The original version of the Water Resources Development Act provided nearly $12 billion for water projects. Some of those projects -- the environmental restoration of the Great Lakes, the Everglades and coastal wetlands in Louisiana -- are good ones. Others fall more into the category of ``pork,'' projects whose benefits are more political than public.

As elections near and the Senate and House talk, the bill has become larded with another $3 billion in projects.

Worse, there's talk that the bill may be stripped of an important reform. Co-sponsored by Arizona Sen. John McCain and Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, the reform would establish an independent panel to review flood-control projects costing more than $40 million. The panel would consist of scientists and economists who would recommend projects based on their cost, engineering and design, and environmental impacts. Ignoring the panel's advice could be grounds for a legal proceeding against the corps under the McCain-Feingold amendment. The original legislation also called for an inventory and inspection of the nation's levees.

In the past, funding for the corps' flood-control projects was controlled by a small coterie of lawmakers whose priorities were driven more by politics than the public interest. Hurricane Katrina provided proof that the system is tragically flawed.